why do you hate the troops?

GOP Voter ID Backers Admit Voter ID Backs GOP

At a Heritage Foundation luncheon, one of the GOP’s chief proponents of Voter ID laws, former Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund, cheerfully acknowledged that laws requiring individual voters to show a photo ID will be far more effective at suppressing votes by Democrats than Republicans.

“Absentee vote ballot fraud is the tool of choice amongst fraudsters,” Fund told a group of bloggers munching on Chick-Fil-A at the conservative Heritage Foundation on Tuesday. “Everytime you see a truly massive, coordinated effort at voter fraud, it usually relies in part on absentee voter fraud.”

While lacking any examples of actual massive, coordinated efforts at either in-person or absentee voter fraud to support his claim,* Fund admitted that Republicans’ focus on voter ID may suppress voting by Democrats:

“I think it is a fair argument of some liberals that there are some people who emphasize the voter ID part more than the absentee ballot part because supposedly Republicans like absentee ballots more and they don’t want to restrict that,” Fund said. “But the bottom line is, on good government grounds, we have to have both voter ID laws and absentee ballot laws.”

We should perhaps be relieved that Fund would like to make voting more difficult for everyone, for good government reasons. If fewer people voting means better government… no, let’s not finish that thought, it is too depressing.

Readers may also be astonished to learn that Fund has a book for sale! We will not link to it, because we’re just that mean. He and his co-author, Hans von Spakovsky, also downplayed the recent Brennan Center report that suggested that voter-ID laws would suppress the votes of a half-million Americans:

“Is there a single person in this room who believes that you can function in this society without an ID? Now there may be some very elderly people, there may be some very isolated people, there may be some bed-ridden people who don’t have ID. Now, I say to you, let’s get them an ID,” Fund said.

It is not yet confirmed whether Fund accompanied this statement with an up-and-down motion with the fingers of his right hand curled, but we currently have no reason to think that he did not.

In other election-stealin’ news, GOP chair Reince Priebus weighed in on the question of early voting in Ohio. (As we all should know by now, the reality is that until last year, all Ohio voters could vote early. Then the GOP passed a bill taking away early voting for everyone but members of the military. Now the Democrats are suing to get early voting reinstated for everyone, and the GOP is claiming that the Dems hate the military and don’t want them to vote. Yes, exactly.) Now that fact-checking stories are making it impossible for Republicans to claim that Ohio Dems are trying to restrict military voting, Priebus found a new way to depict returning early voting to everyone as a slap against The Troops:

Wow. So, expanding voting rights generally — which, let’s face it, tends to favor Democrats — “waters down” the votes of a Republican-leaning constituency like the military? I may be mistaken, but this seems like a case of accidental and illuminating candor, right up there with the Pennsylvania House majority leader who declared recently that his state’s new Voter ID law would win the state for Mitt Romney.

———————————————–

*A bit of searching turned up a dirty election in Greene County, Alabama in 1994 that is the sole example that Heritage tends to cite; for some reason, fans of voter suppression are far less likely to mention another example of massive absentee fraud, the 1997 Miami mayoral election, in which Republican candidate Xavier Suarez won on a tide of absentee ballots from people who turned out to be homeless, incarcerated, or dead.
[TPM / New Republic]

Doktor Zoom Is the pseudonym of Marty Kelley, who lives in Boise, Idaho. He acquired his nym from a fan of Silver-Age comics after being differently punctual to too many meetings. He is not a medical doctor, although he has a real PhD (in Rhetoric and Composition).
He loves upvoting your comments but Disqus is broken and his upvotes don't "stick." Just assume he upvoted what you said, because it was excellent and witty.

No, “Everytime you see a truly massive, coordinated effort at voter fraud," you must be imagining things because there are no massive coordinated efforts at voter fraud; there has not been a single one within my lifetime at least.

Oh now come on. They have to practice it so they know how to spot it when Dems do it!

1stNewtontheMoon

not "imagining things." studying history. like history from the 1960s to the early 80s. If there's anything the heritage foundation likes it's relitigating issues it was on the wrong side of (all of them) 30 years ago.

GeorgiaBurning

Accusing the Democratic Party of a "massive coordinated effort" ? Excuse me??

To be clear, "coordinated voter fraud" does not mean electing partisan officials to purge the voting roles of qualified (but generally opposition) voters.

BaldarTFlagass

I have motherfucking had enough of these motherfucking Republicans in my motherfucking country!

Callyson

Great–I was already pissed about the Voter Suppression, I mean Voter ID, acts, even though they did not directly affect me. But now those fuckers want to go after absentee voters?

The whole reason I signed up to be a permanent absentee voter, despite the fact that doing so means I get *all* the hate mail attack ads, was to avoid the inconvenience of waiting in line at the polls. If the Reeps succeed at fucking this up, how much time will I have to waste waiting in line to vote against their sorry asses?

So when Obama wins in PA what will they do then? They played "FRAUD!!!" and we have these laws. Computer error? Space people?

EDIT: PA tried to change from the winner takes all the electoral delegates system to an each delegate counts as his own in order to give the GOP a better chance to win the nation. That dog didn't hunt even with some of the GOP members know that PA is a swing state and could blow it 2016 for the GOP.

Callyson

This is when I miss my home state–my vote would actually count for something.

Please, Keystone State Wonketteers, please drag someone with you to the polls–and have them drag someone with them. Here's a little inspiration from a vintage ad:

Now you are Ms. Taken. The market lost a good snarker but it couldn't happen to a better Bot. If you would have been with a non snarker all of here would have been pissed.

emmelemm

Be sure to get registered in CA immediately and vote! (Yeah, yeah, I know, blue state, doesn't matter, all locked up… DO IT ANYWAY.)

Callyson

Aw!Well, welcome to the Golden State: I'll be your neighbor in the city that every Bay Area person loves to hate.PS: please vote anyway once you get here. The Dems *might* have a chance to get a 2/3 majority in our legislature, thus enabling them to get around the Party of No…

MissTaken

He'll be living in Walnut Creek with me so he'll get plenty of hate from the SF people soon!

Callyson

That'll be nothing compared to the hate for Los Angeles (confession: I hated on LA too before I moved here.)And congratulations to both of you!

SorosBot

The fact that the supporters of the voter suppression law here had to admit that they know of no instances of voter fraud the ID law they claimed is supposed to prevent gives me hope that the state SC will strike it down.

CivicHoliday

from now on you can only vote if you have a BIRF CERTIFIKET

JustPixelz

I'd find the Repubican worry over "election fraud" more convincing if they made these disenfranchisement laws effective AFTER they've stood for election again. With their 2010 sweep, these changes seem waaay too self-serving.

Also, they should indemnify people for all costs to get their ID — document fees, taxi ride to the registrar's office, postage, etc. The state pays all costs. Otherwise it's a poll tax, which is unconstitutional.

sewollef

"The state pays all costs. Otherwise it's a poll tax, which is unconstitutional."

"Is there a single person in this room who believes that you can function in this society without an ID? Now there may be some very elderly people, there may be some very isolated people, there may be some bed-ridden people who don’t have ID."

Fund can't even go two fuckin' sentences without contradicting himself. Which is a new record for veracity, as he was so frequently just saying one thing and then its opposite in the same sentence.

I swear, on CSPAN once, I saw his tongue reach out and try to grab the words he had just spoken.

pinkocommi

True story. I am 21 weeks pregnant and, after learning the results of my amnio were good last week, I patted my belly and said to my unborn baby, "Now you just have to make sure you don't become a Republican."

You should know that it's perfectly natural for your child to experiment with the notion of being Republican. It's just a way for him or her to express conflicting feelings of acceptance that are troubling and difficult to comprehend, but once (s)he's matured a little, your little one may decide to put away childish things and become adult.

Also, if the amnio came back normal, then you don't really have to worry.

SpeedoFart

I'm waiting for my fetus to burst out before I have that talk with her.

(Congrats, by the way. I'm 28 weeks along!)

ph7

"Nice Pee Rub, Sir" is an anagram for Reince Priebus.

Come here a minute

If you can keep it.

fartknocker

In the litigation between the State of Texas and the USDOJ, one of the fun factoids is that ID is only available from the State DPS, who runs the DMV. The state closed about 90 offices in the last budget. DOJ determined that folks in many rural counties (which are fairly poor in economic status) would be required to travel over 150 miles round trip to get a picture ID. These actions are nothing but voter suppression. And Rick Perry is a goat fucker.

Republicans are indeed like elephants in that they never forget. Their folklore has long blamed Nixon's loss to Kennedy on the anecdotal stuff about ballot stuffing in Chicago and south Texas in the 1960 election. No proof, just lots of stories that they take for gospel. I can trace their continuing paranoid mania about controlling the electoral process directly to the outcome of that election. They seem to absorb this like a bacteria in their mother's milk when they are infants because they don't even know why they have this fixation, they just "know" it happens. This is also why they are totally willing to do that kind of shit themselves (cough cough Florida 2000) because they are sure the other side is doing it to them, even in the absence of a hint of proof that is true. In their delirium about this, the fact they can't prove it only makes them more convinced it is happening. They are just batshitcrazy on this issue, every fucking nutz one of them. Peace out.

bloggers munching on Chick-Fil-A at the conservative Heritage Foundation on Tuesday.

Did their sammiches come with the garnished pickle slices for these fickle appetites? Waffle-fried's consumed by the same fiasco-franchisers who declared War on French Fries so many years ago when the invasion of Iraq drew criticism?

O the wingnutlandian capacity for attachment to fallacious causes. I would try to point out to them, y'know Dixie Chicks andChic-Fil-A — but the fun we once had poking them gently, even with flawed analogies designed for their mien, died out some time ago

Boredw/Gravitas

I've got something they can munch on….

littlebigdaddy

John FUND? Sounds like he's itching for a spot in a R-money administration.

Let's skip the hole punching part and get right to the face punching part.

MissTaken

I punch the shit out of Chad every election day.

Wilcoxyz

Remember when Bachmann told people not to give the gub'mint any info for the census, because of black helicopters and death camps or something. But now you have to have a government ID. So Hopey knows where to send the drone, I guess.

MissTaken

Thank you fucking GOP asshats for reminding me to apply for my absentee ballot for November. If it wasn't for your douchebaggery I may have forgotten.

SorosBot

And considering how ridiculously long the California ballots are, with all the initiatives and propositions, you really don't want to vote at the booth.

MissTaken

And that was just the PRIMARY ballot! I had to use 2 first class stamps to mail the dang thing it was so freaking big.

Starting with November all propositions, initiatives, and referendums must be on the general election ballot because so many people don't bother voting in primaries and special elections. We're going to need cranes to lift those ballots into the mailbox.

Boojum

And that's if you only vote once!

Wilcoxyz

Also on this Chick-Fil-A everywhere shit: can we get noted anti-elitist Romney to pledge to fire the White House chef (which he will enjoy doing) and open a Chick-Fil-A franchise there.

Cognitive dissonance (if there was cognition) thy name is GOP. Photo ID to vote but anonymity for the corporate persons (not citizens) and their bids for ownership of our government, of by and for the oligarchy. Lincoln weeps….

miss_grundy

Lincoln would not be accepted by today's GOP. The wingnuts would be sending him death threats. And not by votes either.

Fox n Fiends

All Obama has to do is declare that being a Republican is now a Felony, and its a landslide victory.

barto

We need to call out Prince Bribeus (or whatever the hell his name is) for being a complete dick!

TootsStansbury

Has the SPLC declared the Heritage Foundation, AEI, hell, the GOP to be hate groups yet?

PubOption

Republicans are not trying very hard. IHow about "Obama is taking away the troops exclusive right to vote early". Completely true, and the wingnuts won't notice or care about the modifier in the sentence.

If only we could catch two Republicans standing outside a voting station wearing black berets being ignored by everybody. Then we would have them.

Negropolis

Also, they have to be black. 'Cause trust me, in rural REAL America, two guys standing outside of a polling station with guns and funny hats isn't voter intimidation, it's patriotism. We have these guys up here in the forests of Livingston County outside Detroit; they aren't terrorist; they are just the Michigan Militia preparing themselves for the upcoming race wars…which, of course, is a completely legitimate concern in REAL America, right? lol

kittensdontlie

Geh-Hatin' Chicken on Tuesday? Let's sit back and watch their own votes be suppressed by their stuffin' that greasy chicken down their gullets.

SpeedoFart

Oh come on. Voting Democrat is fraud in-and-of itself.

Duh!

rocktonsam

why don't the people who are be alienated get pissed and do something for a change

SpeedoFart

Because crushing poverty kind of makes it hard to do so?

Nostrildamus

But what are they doing to keep The Geyz from voting?

Negropolis

Scheduling a Project Runway marathon on a specific November Tuesday?

MinAgain

Clear out that clutter over there along the wall. The revolution is coming, and we're going to need the space.

mosjef

Why complain about voter fraud? It gave our great nation "President" George Bush who lost the election but won the Supreme Court.

Biel_ze_Bubba

To be fair, there has never been a truly massive, coordinated effort at voter fraud that did not rely in part on absentee voter fraud.

Also, Mitt Romney has never sponsored a child sex-slave ring that was not financed by laundered Bain Capital money.

I say it's a wash.

Come here a minute

If fewer people voting means better government… no, let’s not finish that thought, it is too depressing.

Oh come on, wouldn't it be cool to have a royal family? Think of the WEDDINGS!!!!!

If the little old ladies who run Voting Day in my polling place even suspected you were up to no good they would punch you in the throat.

LESS: Heritage Foundation Asshats
MORE: Vigilant Little Old Ladies

Logic of Color

When someone is critical of leadership they are often told to vote, and maybe even volunteer for causes that will correct their grievance. This hopefully has the effect of getting people that better represent their views into office. If that fails, well, you tried and democracy is working. What do you do when those in power are actively and successfully working to suppress their opposition’s voice? I worry that it could lead to things that aren’t allowed in the comments of nice blogs like this.

DutchS

Here I always thought the tool of choice was tinkering with the counting process. Waal, I done bin eddy-kated.